tonight war is fun for one mobile app developer who made a game which allows players to retrace the syrian conflict but leave little choice except to bring down president to sand. a rocky ride turns into tragedy here in russia as a thrill seeker dies in his or big accident after the ball carrying him and a friend flies of course falls into a gorge. a gag for dissent kuwait throws to activists in jail for tweeting against the enemy even though one post and even mention the country's leader. and divide and govern the british parliament brings the axe down on

welfare spending with low income workers said to be this. hello very good evening chief you just joined us this is r t it's kevin owen here tonight at the new center than just after ten pm here now in moscow first the bloody conflict in syria which has been dragging on for almost two years and it's claimed more than sixty thousand lives is now entered the realm of internet gaming called endgame syria players get the chance to fight on the side of the rebels exploring various options to conclude the war has gone off took a look at the game shared his impressions with me. well i wouldn't miss this game for the world it's breathtaking action three d.

graphics not really it's more about an online card game you can see it there basically has two sides were obviously the regime on one side and the computer plays for that and the rebels which the gamer plays for their side basically you choose what sort of in syria or other methods you want to use against the regime and put it up against it's weapons then you've got chopper the infantry some more choppers a lot of the weapons and here and so on and then the game basically calculates your chances for success it's pretty much how it works what's being said about the appropriateness of this game as i mentioned thousands and thousands of lives have been lost over the last two years is a huge diplomatic standoff appropriate is this how it will be viewed well it's unethical at least because the really tens of thousands of people have been killed throughout this conflict has been causing huge diplomatic problems not only with

syria but between other. players this game did try to reflect so you could you could see it there the political fees the developers have been saying that the game was beast on real media reports from the real situation in the in in syria. of all here there's the perfect example china which is automatically given by the game it's here represented as the country which supports the regime although we haven't heard any open statements from the chinese government russia is put in the same line with iran. has a ball also actually has more hasn't openly supported president assad's regime either and neither has the russian fact we've been hearing constantly from moscow saying that it's not taking any side of the conflict there's only one outcome apparently to this game no the only outcome well it does. actually there we go it offers a peace offer but the game itself recommends the use or not true of that since it

says that then you won't get much credit among the rebels so basically the best ending of this game particularly is the four of the regime it was going off with a bit earlier on drones take the skies over disputed territory lease china sea two of asia's giants for cash into the high tech arms race with analysts warning surveillance could lead to skirmish examine that ahead. and fresh rebel of arlin assumes presidency of the e.u. now and is charged with leading get your of out of the economic crisis look at what's in store for dublin coming up as well. social networking in kuwait has landed too many jail or courts given each of them a two year sentence claiming they defamed the emea with the tweets the uprising in the countries about the market second anniversary with a government accused of resorting to any means necessary to gag dissenting voices or journalists i should return see told me kuwait is just another u.s.

backed dictatorship. it's obvious that the united states and nato countries desire to keep their thousands of troops in kuwait and as we've seen of course there been demonstrations in bahrain and of course saudi arabia which are not being covered on any corporate media it's very difficult to cover the brutal suppression of human rights in these nato and u.s. backed dictatorships human rights groups themselves or in the sense of a different subject because some of them are being knobbled by u.s. authorities but in fairness there have been some human rights groups that have campaigned for the horrible human rights situation suffered by the. elements the we do and people under a thousand of those stateless in kuwait and anyone really trying to look for greater freedoms in kuwait in sort of forgotten country in terms of the arab spring in fact it is hosting at the end of this month a whole conference about syria and about humanitarian help for syria so it does

love to say about humanitarian things in syria but it imprisons people that tweet anything against them even though it is one of the most democratic places in the persian gulf arab countries and you can read up more about the crackdown on the opposition on our website r.t. dot com including similar cases of jail in the tweets in another gulf state bahrain and why imprison activists they're losing hope for early release. now it was meant to be a bit of fun but it ended in tallahassee a giant inflated rubber ball commonly known as zorba carrying inside to thrill seekers as rolled out of control and plunged off a cliff at a ski resort in southern russia one of the men died another one was badly injured my colleague to bring what's a discuss the tragedy with our correspondent tom but first let's see how this all happened this freak accident was caught on on camera

. how much is it ten dollars where will it go he'll say in a minute cool isn't it let's do it now. you can see the plastic zor ball here which has gone horribly off track from where we just saw it before some people try to stop it they're trying to put pushes against some rocks to stop it but it careers on it goes in the end one point five kilometers starting off over the edge of this mountain you can see this on this amateur video which gets a bit shaky now inside a russian father of two and his friends all the others watching the french can see careering down this mountainside plunged off cliffs and then onto a frozen lake where it came to rest. inside both of them fired around like pinballs one had

a broken neck and died on the way to hospital the other escaped with just injuries i mean these kind of a exhuming to vittie is one always has to think about you know there are repercussions when doing this but what exactly is being for those who who've never even heard of the words are being here's a look like quite a strange thing is a giant plastic ball with the sport was invented in new zealand here's one with this two layers of plastic air in the middle and the person sits inside that there is the straps in his of someone getting in now they're either strapped in or they roll around inside it or slip around inside it i tried it myself once actually and then they push down usually quite quite a gradual slope reasonably short slope and then they spin around bounce around as the ball goes down and then the court at the end very popular sport is caught on or around the world many people try to all over the place he said you've tried it it seems to be popular but isn't thing a thing is the principle is reasonably quite safe but people like to try and push

it as far as it can go here's some people in a city bomb you see there are this car people like to try and use this this great ball of plastic. as a creatively as they can and it can go wrong especially when it's not regulated or monitored proper. here we see a woman flies outside here in slow motion we can just see her right here and she shoots out and that was on a controlled course that was that wasn't supposed to happen a tall so what is in principle looks totally safe giant protective plastic ball can actually prove quite dangerous. reporting for us the. maritime dominance appears to be turning into a high tech high stakes arms race in the east china sea japan and china are vying for power in the disputed territory and it's drones that are quickly coming to the forefront of the race though james corbet editor of a japan based news website told us some stand to gain from the escalating crisis. i

think they are preparing to to be ready to commit more more resources to the military expenditures and they're getting ready to do that even as we speak and i think we see really the start of a new normal here and in east asia as unfortunately i think tensions military tensions are going to lead to increasing military expenditures on both sides as japan is looking to buy some more global hawk drones and china is launching a new line up to its own fleet of drones and i think that washington is perfectly happy to to encourage japan in this not only because it obviously benefits their armaments industry and the defense contractors who stand to make the billions that japan will be spending on increased expenditures but also because i think when the further the wedge is driven between japan and china the more it plays into american hands as long as this doesn't actually come to a full scale war i think the more off balance japan is the better it serves america as they seek to get bigger toehold in the region and i think we're going to see

more and more of this because now that abi is in power he's known as a hard line nationalist and now that she jinping is taking the helm of china for the next ten years i think he's looking to to put his stake down it's as someone who can really be a strong defender of china so i think we're really going to see an entrenched position on both sides and it looks like there is a new normal of wars and increasing expenditures that are likely for the next several years. the fears of the drones isn't just limited to asia reader the fate of the whole u.s. programs the sharp focus of big claims his pick for cia chief is to trigger happy got that coming up later in the program and failed first loyalists urged to go shoot on the sixth day now of union flag related riots in northern ireland the protesters say they don't want to talk they're preparing instead to take their action to dublin. ireland has assumed the presidency of the council of the european union to and with it the responsibility to try and help solve the eaves financial troubles the head of the european council was in dublin to mark the occasion on the

economy was saved by a bail out in twenty terms presiding over an economic nightmare for the union with twenty six million people unemployed now as some fall from this with robert all of the bridge group think tank is joining us on the line from london robert evening over the next few months the e.u. is to organize a banking union also the cap on employment growth and to approve a controversial one trillion neuro budget is ireland up to the task of overseeing all this considering its history weiland has its own economic problems which are continuing its course has has the economic problems which have been happening ever since the the euro which created high inflation there and then of course exacerbated the faster they had ready to take on the presidency of the european council is of course a very large piece of work not just for the senior politicians in the government but also for many disabled servants and they would be better off spending their time really trying to address arlen's economic difficulties rather than trying to solve the problems within the european union which are very great indeed of course

unemployment now in the e.u. is alarmingly high and while i was going to find herman van rompuy called ireland today an example of how to handle the economic crisis this quickly take a listen to. you are taking over the presidency in challenging times for you. you are a good example to all on how to handle the economy crisis through painful but unavoidable. consistently are your targets and more importantly your recreating your potential for growth and jobs. so positive points there as far as i was concerned you agree well the obvious economy isn't doing as well as what he says the i.m.f. said just recently in december that they should perhaps slacken their driver for austerity because that was harming the economic growth in ireland and of course the

thing is is that arlen when he says island is the reason that ireland's a poster boy for austerity means that the irish people are not protesting and taking up their white to protest as people in spain and greece have done because we know that austerity at this time isn't actually hurting it is actually hurting it can't actually work whilst you're in the euro in the single currency it will create more economic problems and that's why we see unemployment across the eurozone vising quite alarming leigh so he's very happy that arlen is getting on with the policy of austerity but actually it's actually the wrong policy at this time ok so on their island is it going to change. well ireland will not will not change the drive cost over tea in the european union really what's needed is that countries need to recognize that the austerity they are being forced to undertake by the european central bank community and you as well as the i.m.f.

in spain and in greece and other nations is actually causing more economic harm because the irish government is so wedded to the austerity drive just as the german government is it seems there won't be a change in european union policy but there needs to be this change because we can see the unemployment rising across the eurozone countries are suffering a great deal of economic harm and the far this has this presidency of the european union which they now have in of course they will continue this drive towards austerity and will not allow other countries to recognize that the answer is to end the austerity drive and exit the european union single currency the euro robert i would sway does a country like ireland have against the big boys of the e.u. if you like germany if it wanted to make any changes could it. why wouldn't the public of arlon these should be a sovereign nation that's what something that they held very greatly to that they worked very hard to to achieve throughout their throughout their history but of

course being in the european union e.u. law takes precedence and they have to really follow what use you say just as every other country does with those rules actually cause economic harm and when a country has the presidency it does have more of an opportunity to set the agenda its civil servants and its politicians a whole host of meetings and they really try and push through an agenda that they want to see happening and will course always try and take on board the other views of other nations but they have one opportunity to influence things but of course arlen is wedded to the austerity drive so unfortunately they won't they they can have influence if they want to take it but of course their country their country's government is too wedded to austerity and then work or just see the economic problems just continuing until they too they change course of course to change course eventually but for the six months of their presidency seem to they're just wedded to this this german led drive for the duction in public expenditure whilst

having tax wise at the same time which only result in higher unemployment robert frost your thoughts robert oulds the chair of the british group think tank thank you. coming up stripped locked up and. bradley manning wins a ruling against the u.s. military of their harsh treatment of him while we report on claims of double standards towards whistleblowers after the break. wealthy british. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser report.

you know sometimes you see a story. you think you understand it and then something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything. i'm tom are welcome to the big picture. the still no sign of the violence between loyalists and police in belfast relenting after a six night a riot so the flying of the union flag. petrol bombs fall works and stones at

offices a special meeting of this representatives has been called to try and end the violence but the protest leaders say they won't take part in the discussions and they're preparing to take action in the irish capital dublin on saturday full metal deputy leader of the u.k. dependence party says there's little sense in writing and it's up to. the situation well i think it is getting out of hand and the reports that there are sort of quasi fascist groups and far right elements who are this.

as i say this is a job for the politicians this is the job for the world but let's get the politicians around the table and let's hope that the council come to see sense and let's have the union flag flying debate over the ability of president of the chavez to rule venezuela is heating up in a few minutes a report of a clash between the government that's trying to cement the leaders authority despite his recovery from cancer and the opposition's own political ambitions.

individuals harmed i'm not aware of it but it certainly seems at this point this is more of a case of embarrassment than actual harm it seems to be that there are good leaks and there are bad leaks that you know when it helps make the administration look good in a leak is ok when it's an embarrassment like it is with bradley manning you know it's a capital offense this week marks the anniversary from an infamous institution has gone tell them obey you can catch r.t. special coverage from this friday. beyond borders and beyond the courts eleven years on guantanamo remains open for business marty looks at the interrogation nerve center of america's war on terror.

pretty famous welfare systems going through the mill with parliament rubber stamping a cap on benefit rises the justification is the exorbitant cost and it's an abuse by many on benefits but figures show that by far the hardest hit will be low income workers but is laura smith picks up the story. the parliament has voted in favor of this bill which would have a one percent cap on benefits welfare benefits ministers say this cap is needed because the states handouts have been rising twice as fast as pay as in work pay in recent years this bill will now go through to further reading so it's not passed yet but we can expect significant changes to the welfare budget in the years to come it's all about this kind of what we've seen in recent weeks this this strivers versus skivers thing where the government says it wants to support people who are going out to work trying hard to make money versus the people who are staying in bed all day and they say it's fair because public sector pay under a sarah see measures is being kept and private sector pay is rising below the level

of inflation so why should people who are on benefits get more money but a lot of it goes to in fact two thirds of it goes to the lower paid workers so people who are strivers these various tribes that we've been talking about essential workers nurses rubbish collectors people without whom the country would come down to its knees and that's what labor's talking about working tax credits child benefit those kinds of things and in fact a charity the children's society has come out and said that if you are single or single primary school teacher or a nurse with two children you're going to be losing four hundred twenty four pounds a year by two thousand and fifteen under these new measures so certainly very controversial it says we're not all in it together in fact what we are what we what the government's proposing to do according to labor is hits households towards the bottom of this is your economic scale much harder than they hit household further up the scale more children in poverty they say of the landlord's association says

it could contribute to more homelessness middle hit women particularly hard because they're the people who child tax credits go to for example and of course people struggling to pay for rising inflation rising fuel prices rising food prices and to put food on the tape. abel and then on the other side of the coin we've got a tax cuts for the rich that will be introduced in april less than a thing happens if you're over one hundred fifty thousand pounds a year after april you'll be paying five percent less tax at a man if you pay fifty percent it'll be at forty five percent if you're ending a million pounds that's going to save you forty thousand pounds per year and people are up in arms about. nazis or smith they're often called man's best friend but when dangerous dogs attack they can leave scars that never heal coming we look at what's being done to control the ukase dangerous animals. that spark a bomb and nominating john brennan to head the cia the future of the u.s.

drone program has come again into focus spread a nickname by some of the assassinations or as a supporter of unmanned drone attacks fred brentham an american antiwar activist in office says the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the controversial strikes proves one of two things about brennan. the message the president is sending is that i need to be able to say that i'm fighting terrorists for the short for my own short run political gain but in doing that he's sowing a world win which i believe will kill many many more americans and. because we're only meeting so many muslims in terms of john brennan the first time he went public with this drone program and he said and this is a quote there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency precision of the capabilities that we've been able to develop now for john brennan to say that only two possibilities one is the pathological liar he knows that was murdered hundreds

of civilians with his life. but i think the second possibility is much more serious and that is that he's delusional. attempts to answer the big questions in life is there life on mars this one of the big questions well if not they could be the founder of internet bank pay pal is planning to send people to live find out more about his world idea and r.t. dot com and caring for football world cup the brazilian stylee authorities of the country leaving nothing to chance the giving sex workers free english classes if you'd like to know what they're up to do is check out our website. you know gratian venezuela's reelected president hugo chavez has been perspire the country's legislators have voted to give the commandante use facing complications after his fourth cancer surgery enough time to recover before swearing him in but the opposition says the move is unconstitutional and wants an official court ruling to resolve the issue pepe escobar from asia times online told me he believes chavez's

political power is in a shaky position right now. shows his war is not a monolithic saying like us would dare to say the communist party in china there at least four or five different factions fighting for power and this is one of the problems we have an unsteady situation in terms of house because there will be only journal struggle for power insights there is more him at the same time we're going to have more possibilities of foreign interests serious trying to you know a loser of this process and i mean specially our friends in washington all the news here will see an opening well maybe this is the beginning of the end of just let's get it out at least one person has been left in a critical condition after a ferry rammed into a dock in new york as many as fifty seven other people are said to been injured the collision led to a huge gash on the starboard bow you see the pictures there the dock itself was

littered by people on stretchers many with bandaged and woods witnesses say it happened during rush hour it was packed with commuters heading to work then. around eighty people been arrested in athens as police finally ended the standoff at a squat in the city center authorities say the building was occupied by people who took part in violent street protests the site it's been used for squatting for about twenty years. battles of iraq is in south africa between farmers calling for higher wages and the police the protesters many working at the local wine industry are calling for their salaries to double similar demonstrations last year left to. their cause in the united kingdom for more to be done to protect the public from dangerous dogs but political interactions have been horrific consequences are to sarah smith one family struggling to come to terms with the cost of letting vicious dogs roam the streets. it was a nightmarish attack that lasted just a few minutes but one which these parents wake up every day earlier this year and

near state t.v. year old son kiran with this italy set upon by a neighbor's dog the straw. soldiers a mistake it's been six months now and still is ongoing surgery for image of the week it's not going on kiran was staying at his grand house when he managed to slip a native what happened next very nearly cost the child's life we were looking for him. the dogs got him so then we ran round the corner the dog chewing into pieces. of chicken a dog. released the picked him up when the dog started tracking it all to seconds earlier it will not happen because two seconds later he will be here they say it was a pair but it's law it was a guard dog. which is different also though was annoying me.